“As expected, the 2010 blizzard throughout the Northeast halted nearly all retail visits and spending during a period that is fairly crucial for retailers,” said Bill Martin, ShopperTrak’s co-founder. “And at this point, the prospect of momentarily pausing a potential $1 billion in sales has the collective industry holding its breath.”

Preliminary estimates for sales on December 26 and 27 were around $10 billion, and researchers believe that the storm took an 11.2 percent chunk out of shopping traffic on Sunday and 38.6 percent on Monday. Of course, the overall loss is still yet to be seen, since a lot of people will just shop more this weekend to make up for their stir-craziness.